


It Hurts

by AboveTheMoonlight



Series: IH Series [1]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 21:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AboveTheMoonlight/pseuds/AboveTheMoonlight
Summary: After Élise's death Arno falls into a deep depression, he'll need help to get back on his feet again.





	1. It Hurts

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoy this little thing I threw together a while ago ^^

It had been six months since Élise’s death and Arno was still a mess. His days were spent in the studio, drinking the pain away until he couldn’t feel a thing, usually waking up hours later and going about his daily routine of either crying or drinking, it was a never-ending cycle. The people who loved for him had tried everything to get him out, it was good to mourn her death, she was the love of his life after all, but this was too much and would end up destroying him.  
  
Arno wouldn’t let anyone see him.  
  
Of course, anyone beside (Y/N).  
  
They met after Élise was sent to the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis and quickly became inseparable, until the fact that she was just a peasant girl and had to work almost every hour of the day eventually drove them apart. However, the universe seemed to want them together, they ran into – literally ran into – each other years later in the streets of Paris.  
  
“Arno Dorian?” She asked while they bent down to pick the goods she carried off of the ground.  
  
“(Y/N)? Oh my God, it’s you!”  
  
(Y/N) jumped into his arms, a smile unfolding in her lips with the realization she’d just reunited with her dearest friend. Sure he was different, more handsome and certainly much taller, he looked more mysterious but she could see how his face lighted up when he saw her. After that they kept meeting at the Café Théâtre and without both realizing, they were already involved in each other’s lives. She was always there when he needed and even now, in such a dark stage of his life, stayed by his side day and night.  
  
(Y/N) went home after three days of caring for Arno, only to take a quick bath and grab something for them to eat, she was now returning when there was a loud bang in his room. Running up the stairs two at a time she flew the door open to see a nearly passed out Arno sobbing on the floor, a bottle of wine in his hand. (Y/N) dropped everything she carried on the floor and tried to get him up.  
  
“Is that you, mon amour?” He asked, his voice hopeful.  
  
Sometimes when he was too drunk he’d see his beloved Élise instead of her, and she always ended up agreeing with his hallucinations as it was the only way for him to sleep calmly for a few hours.  
  
“Yes, love, it’s me” She answered, her voice breaking, full of sorrow for both their pain.  
  
After managing to carry him to the bed, she covered him with a blanket and took the empty bottle away.  
  
“I’ve missed you…” He whispered before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.  
  
(Y/N) let go a desolated sigh and left him to rest, picking up the goods at the room’s entrance. She had feelings for him since they were children, and although she would never admit it out loud, what hurt her more was to see him suffer like this for another woman.  
  
Hours later Arno woke up.  
  
The sun was now setting leaving the sky with shades of orange and light pink, the buildings around obscuring the sight. Arno set up and sighed, burying his face in his hands, another day wasted doing nothing, but he didn’t care, at least that’s what he tried to tell himself.  
  
She was dead.  
  
His family was dead.  
  
What would he care about now?  
  
Uncovering his eyes he looked about his room, everything was surprisingly clean and in order, steam coming out of the bathtub in front of the bed, however he didn’t recall preparing it.  
  
Ah yes, her.  
  
Glancing to his left he saw her asleep in the chair near him, god, she looked exhausted…  
  
Arno set there contemplating his life, he didn’t felt worthy of (Y/N), he didn’t felt worthy of her sympathy, of her unshakeable determination to look after him. She had become a strong woman, he remembered her smile, her laugh, how she’d blush when he made a less appropriate joke, she was beautiful no doubt.  
  
“Arno…” She murmured, eyes opening slowly.  
  
“(Y/N), I’m sorry if I awoke you” He quickly said, fearing having disturbed her peaceful slumber.  
  
“No, I was just resting” Smiling weakly before standing up she inquired “how are you feeling?”  
  
“Miseráble” He chuckled humorlessly.  
  
(Y/N) kneeled beside him taking his hands in hers “I prepared you a hot bath, you’ll feel better after” she tried to cheer him up.  
  
And there it was again, the sensation of unworthiness that was beginning to consume him, his mind was filled with doubts, why was she here? No one had come to see him in months, no one had bothered to check if he was still alive… Then, why?  
  
“Why do you do this?” Arno asked finally looking up at her “how can you put up with me if I only cause you trouble”  
  
“Don’t be silly, you don’t cause me any trouble” She smiled again, yet there was something artificial about her answer, her eyes didn’t reflect the smile – fake smile – on her lips “Come on now” (Y/N) stood up, grabbing some towels on her away to the bathtub.  
  
Arno didn’t move. He had a talent for reading people’s emotions, an exceptional praiseworthy gift very useful to an assassin like him, however, in this moment he wished it would disappear, he wanted to believe she was fine, wanted to be blind enough to not see how thin she was, to ignore the bags under her eyes and the tired smile she always gave him, but he couldn’t.  
  
“No” he mumbled, (Y/N) turned to him, a worried look on her face “I won’t bother you anymore, you can leave”  
  
“We’ll discuss this later, first you need to clean yourself and eat something…” She tried again, this time with a nearly inconspicuously aggressive note to her voice.  
  
Before he could think clearly the words had already left his mouth “I don’t need you here. I don’t need you to nurse me back to health like you were my nanny, I don’t need to be lectured like a child about what I am to do or not” Arno got up and paced the room, his voice rouse “because of me you’ve become this… this thing, you think I don’t see it? You hide your exhaustion behind a fake smile and go on to your housewife routine. I hate that, I hate that it was me that did this to you, I hate you lost, what? Five, six months of your life because of me, and it was all for nothing…” By now his anger had turned into sadness and regret, for the first time in half a year Arno was sober enough to finally see how his grieving had affect others. “I don’t care what happens to me, don’t you get it? I don’t care if I live or die…”  
  
(Y/N) felt his despair, his need to disappear, she too felt miserable. Despite his exasperated speech about the emptiness he saw in her, she didn’t said anything, mostly because it was true (Y/N) hadn’t been herself in months, but it was time to return to her obstinate self.  
  
“I won’t leave you, I won’t let you give up” She clenched her fists with determination.    
  
“It’s no use (Y/N), go now, I’ll be fine on my own”  
  
At this point something inside her burst, maybe because she was too tired to choose her words carefully, maybe because she understood he was serious about his statement, if he no longer cared for his own life then she would be the one to do it.  
  
“I won’t leave you, you stubborn idiot!” She shouted “God, Dorian, don’t you realize I do this because I care? I care for you, imbécile! You said you didn’t need me to treat you like a child, so for god’s sake, don’t act like a child! I am tired of carrying your drunken ass back to bed every day, I am tired of you mumbling her name, I am so freaking tired of all this sadness” (Y/N) voice started braking “but I put up with it all, and I will continue to”  
  
“Why? I only want to know why”  
  
“Because…” Tears started running down her face “because you gave some meaning to my life since we met, if it wasn’t for you I never would have left my parents’ house, by now I would be married to some idiot twice my age, by now I would have had like six kids, six little brats who would live a meaningless life like their mother” she chuckled slightly at the thought and now spoke more softly “I was just about to give up when you ran into me that day, you know? But I took our reunion as a sign to keep going. You were like a candle that illuminated the path for me. We were so happy for a time there, weren’t we? Laughing and teasing each other all the time, I began to think maybe you felt it too” she wiped the tears away with her hand, following a moment of silence she inhaled sharply, preparing herself “You want to know why I do this? I do it because I love you”  
  
Arno watched has she walked to the door, her hand firmly grabbing the handle as she looked at him, his body paralyzed, had she said that she loved him?  
  
“But it hurts… It hurts to love someone this much, only to see them keep hurting themselves”  
  
Once again, Arno watched as she closed the door.


	2. Healing

Arno froze. He did not run after her, did not try to stop her, after all, what could he say that would make her stay? Everything (Y/N) had yelled at him about was true, he was nothing but an idiot who had isolated himself from the world, using a broken heart as an excuse. But Élise was the love of his life, or so he had thought. The truth is that after hearing such a heartfelt confession from the woman whom had always looked after him, he didn’t feel certain of anything anymore.  
  
Letting himself fall back on the bed, Arno let his gaze briefly hover over the bottle of red wine on the nightstand that seemed to call for him, however, with a heavy sigh, he forced himself to face the wooden slats on the ceiling, nothing good could ever happen if he started drinking again.  
  
It was then - alone in the room after a meaningless argument and (Y/N) revealing that, even after he’d been nothing but a burden for six months, still loved him deeply - that Arno made a decision, he would never drink like a madman, nor hurt her, ever again.  
  
In the two months that followed Arno started obeying, though silently, with no complaints to all of  (Y/N)’s requests, his first concern doing everything he could to make the woman’s life easier. He started to help around the house, even if his partner refused or tried to deny him of such shores, Arno was determined to do more than spend all day in bed wailing. Still he did not dare to leave the house, but he started working again, little things like responding to letters or update older documents.  
  
The first month passed almost without them realizing it. In the beginning they barely spoke, starting with just a “thank you” here, a “please” there, and the typical “good morning” or “good night”. Over time, the simple words and greetings turned into sentences: “Do you need any help?” “How are you feeling?” Or “Let me carry that for you”. After thirty-one days they were behaving like a couple in love. Arno started teasing her again once in a while, he loved seeing that soft blush on her cheeks whenever she laughed, loved to feel the house filled with light and happiness whenever they were together. It was as if nothing had happened.  
  
On the second month after the fight, Arno agreed that perhaps it was time to return to the outside world, he couldn’t spend the rest of his life closed away at home, although if (Y/N) was by his side, nothing would make him happier than spending eternity in the studio. He began to wonder as how to make it happen, it would obviously going to be a surprise, God, she would be so happy! But it became more difficult with each passing day. (Y/N) rarely left the house, and when that did indeed happen, it wouldn’t take long for her to return. His idea of perfection didn’t help either: Arno was waiting for a sunny day, with birds chirping and a cool breeze coming from the Seine; but in February was impossible to get such a scenario.  
  
That’s why after days thinking about all the most romantic hypotheses that would, or rather, could, never fit together in the cold and rainy weather of France in winter, he settled to seize the first opportunity that fell to the feet.  
  
On a Monday morning, grey and windy, (Y/N) left to the market, he feigned a cold, stating that he was too ill to even have breakfast. As soon as he heard the front door’s latch close he jumped out of bed, already impeccably dressed, quickly grabbing his coat, he hurried to keep up with her.  
  
The adrenaline that you travelled through his veins was greater than he had ever felt, not for being out there or to feel the wind on his face as he ran over the roofs of Paris, but because he was terrified of making a mistake.  
  
The marketplace was the same as everything he remembered, noisy and muddy, but it had a peculiar charm to it. When he saw her stop at a fruit stand he dropped from his position on the roof, mingling with the crowds. Effortlessly taking a piece of fruit, a red apple, from the basket the woman was carrying, touching her lightly on the shoulder to get her attention.  
  
“Pardon, mademoiselle” he exclaimed before she had time to turn around “I think you dropped this”.  
  
(Y/N) was about to thank the kind stranger when she finally noticed it was him. Freezing for a second, she mentally questioned her sanity, then smiled and, as in their reunion years ago, leaped into the man’s arms.  
  
“If I knew you were going to react like this, I’d offer you fruit more often” he smiled, letting the apple fall and embracing her, tenderly pressing her body against his.  
  
“Imbécile” was all she could mutter.  
  
She was too caught up in the moment, everything around them seemed to disappear as the enthusiasm made her jump joyfully, there was so much she wanted to show Arno, so many people would be overjoyed to see him again in good health. He, however, merely wanted to be with her, forget the rest of the world and keep her in his arms.  
  
His eyes were fixed on her,losing himself in them for a few seconds,a gloved hand stroked the woman’s cheek,his touch gentle as if afraid to break her. She knew what he intended, so without delay, she pulled him by the waistcoat, her lips capturing his in a clumsy kiss. It took him a while to kiss back, surprised by (Y/N)’s boldness, taking advantage of the few seconds before she stepped back, a radiant smile on her slightly flushed face.  
  
“You always take too long” She said.


End file.
